Re: colony size was 1900's

At 11:42 AM +0100 1/30/02, KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de wrote:

>
>Well, in this whole thread, very little has been said about actual coly
>sizes. My impression was that most people on this thread thought in
>terms of wilderness planets with very thinly scattered populations.

Its a pretty nebulous concept which is why I've be using very general 
ideas that certain products require more industries behind their 
production than do older technology items (steel Firearm vs chemical 
laser).
>
>
>Well, at medieval technology levels, a settlement of a few dozen people
>is basically self-sustaining (assuming an earthlike environment),
>though prone to be wiped out by local catastrophes. A single settlement
>of 5.000 to 10.000 people is quite a large town, and hardly
>self-sustaining. It will require food brought in from surrounding
>areas.

I'd figure that you'd have a great deal of robotics and automated 
systems helping the farmers out on the fields. ie doing much of the 
mindless work of mow this field, plow that one, harvest that one. GPS 
would allow a very easy way of telling a robot where to go and what 
path to follow. So our farmer is something of a sysytem's operator 
who can do basic parts replacement and welding and such. Just like 
they can now. They also know something about bio tech and other 
plant/animal technologies.

I suspect that mining operations are going to be in place in various 
parts of the region that has been settled. Also, basic drilling and 
pumping operations for petrochemicals for industrial process (this is 
easy as it takes less work to keep a well going than it does to keep 
a mine working).

Your towns would be geared towards supplying the basic needs of the 
population. First is power and water. New clothes is also high on the 
list assuming natural fibers. Then theres variety in food. Most 
complex items are going to be shipped in. Supplies of materials, 
parts, goods, machinery, and other gear is going to be very very 
surge based. Not a steady stream like a running economy on Earth is. 
Given how reliable a computer is now days your colonist won't need to 
be making those. They'll be wanting other more important items 
shipped in besides chip fabrication plants that take up an entire 
ship ( I still don't think you'll be able to get a chip fab system in 
a container, industries have become more complex and larger as our 
technology has progressed, not smaller).

I also forsee basic mills and other plants that process the raw 
materials harvested into things more easily usable. Food processing, 
ore processing, lumber mills, an oil refinery then a chemical plant, 
a brewery and likely very soon, someone will make a distillery, even 
if very small. All of these industries will take materials from local 
harvest as well as additional influxes of off planet gear and 
hardware to expand their capability.

For example, likely your refinery will start out just separating your 
basic petro chemicals and doing some basic purity refining. You'll 
have kerosene, petrol, diesel, lube oil, fuel oils and would be able 
to take many of those things and send them to the chemical plant for 
further refining. Some of those are still going to be useful to your 
budding colony, others too dirty to be used.

Also, your major export will be what ever is in short supply back in 
other colonies or for a better price, what ever the home worlds lack.

Things will progress faster and be more self-sustainable if you have 
a set play book. Build a settlement. Expand it to the size of a state 
where the longest travel to the capital is half a day by the average 
form of transport. You won't waste time designing new things unless 
you have to. Use an existing design that the colony founders 
licensed.

Then when you've got that built, you start pumping people and 
machinery into the next area that looks very promising. It could be 
right next door, it could be on the next river system on the other 
side of the continent.

>However, spreading 200.000 people over a whole planet AND assuming
>high-tech industry implies very easy transportation and communications.
>I don't see a viable infrastructure or vehicle industry within that
>framework.

Agreed.

>
>200.000 people in a reasonably compact area (a US state or European
>country, at most) might be more plausible.

Especially given some quickly built roads for heavy traffic and some 
sort of basic air car. I see something the size of germany or 
Oklahoma depending.

--
Ryan Gill	  |	   |	     rmgill@mindspring.com
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